Assumption Parish President, Martin Triche, stated "To suggest that Scott Angelle abandoned Bayou Corne and Assumption Parish is nothing short of completely false. Senator Vitter was not there for our residents when Scott was." Ryan Cross, Angelle's gubernatorial campaign manager said, "Scott had already made the decision he was going to run for PSC. He jumpstarted the response and coordinated it on the ground. He was one of the first people down at the sinkhole site." Public Service Commissioner In the 2012 PSC race, Angelle, with 213,485 votes (57.2 percent), won all thirteen parishes in District 2 to claim the seat vacated by Jimmy Field, a Baton Rouge attorney. The Democrat Forest Wright finished second in the balloting with 76,336 votes (20.5 percent), and Republican State Representative Erich Ponti of Baton Rouge, trailed in third place with 43,287 ballots (11.6 percent). Two other contenders, a Republican and a No Party contender, shared the remaining 11 percent of the vote. 2015 gubernatorial campaign Angelle lost by a relatively narrow margin in the primary to his fellow Republican, U.S. Senator David Vitter, who took on Democrat John Bel Edwards of Tangipahoa Parish in the November 21 general election. Another of Angelle's opponents in the governor's race was his elected successor as lieutenant governor, Jay Dardenne of Baton Rouge, who finished fourth in the primary. Dardenne endorsed Edwards for the November 21 runoff election against Vitter, but Angelle refused to endorse either candidate. State Treasurer John Neely Kennedy, himself a former Democrat, called upon Angelle to join him in endorsing Vitter to prove Angelle's credibility as a Republican. Angelle responded via spokesman, criticizing Kennedy's political history and calling him "the eternal president of the RINO club." 2016 congressional campaign On March 3, 2016, Angelle announced his candidacy for Louisiana's 3rd congressional district, which is being vacated by Charles Boustany. Angelle polled 44 percent in the runoff contest against former St. Landry Parish sheriff's deputy Clay Higgins, having run best in the Lake Charles area. Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement On May 23, 2017, the United States Secretary of the Interior, Ryan Zinke, made Angelle the Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement's fourth Director. That year, the Gulf of Mexico produced $2.8 billion in lease and royalty payments to the federal government. Angelle has frequently traveled to Texas and Louisiana to meet with industry executives and has encouraged them to directly call his